by Emily Greene
“Sounds like a perfect plan to me. Do you think she will be upset that we are dropping in on her uninvited?”
“I hope not. I really just want to get to the bottom of her involvement with Sarah and need to know if she had anything to do with her murder.” I glanced at my watch and then smiled at Carrie. “I have a surprise for you.”
A smile spread across her face. “Really?”
“Yes. There are still tickets available to the 2:00 show of Wicked and we have time to grab a quick lunch and see the show before we go see Janice this evening.”
Carrie flung her arms around me. “A Broadway show! Harper, I am so excited! We have to get the tickets before they sell out!”
I gave her a teasing smile. “I already bought our tickets.”
“What? How did you know we would have time to go see it?”
“I couldn’t come to New York City for the first time and not see a show with my best friend, especially after the way you begged me before we left. I know we just ate breakfast not too long ago, but we should get something to eat because the show is 2 ½ hours long. So, let’s take the car back to the hotel, grab something quick to eat and take a taxi over to the theater.”
“Oh Harper, I am so excited!”
Carrie practically pulled me down the street toward the car. I couldn’t remember the last time I had seen her so excited. I was looking forward to losing myself in the musical for a couple of hours. A break from tracking down Sarah’s murderer was exactly what I needed.
*~*~*
“I don’t care what anyone says,” Carrie said as we walked out of the theater three hours later, “no other city compares when it comes to seeing a Broadway show. New York is simply the best! Thank you so much for taking me to see Wicked, Harper. It was so amazing!”
“You are very welcome, it’s the least I could do after all you are doing and have done for me. And I agree with you, nothing else compares. The show was incredible. I could see it five more times!”
“I wish we could do that, but we have to go see an old friend.”
I glanced at my watch and it was almost 5:00 and I actually felt a little bit nervous. What if Janice was angry that we showed up unannounced? It was too late to worry about that because we only had a small window of time to talk to her. We took a cab over to her building and went inside.
The building looked newer and had to be at least 30 stories tall. The lobby was impressive with its gleaming white walls and floor to ceiling glass windows. The doorman sat behind an enormous desk and smiled at us as we approached him.
“Hello ladies, how can I help you?”
Contrary to what I had always heard about New York City, everyone I had met so far was very polite. I smiled back as I adjusted my purse on my shoulder.
“We are here to see Janice Blaine.”
“Your names?”
“Harper Madison and Carrie Hanson.”
“Of course, just a moment.”
He looked up her information on what I could only assume was the computer, and five seconds later he had her on the phone.
“Ms. Blaine, Harper Madison and Carrie Hanson are here to see you.”
A confused look crossed the doorman’s face as he glanced at us while listening to whatever Janice was saying to him and a wave of panic washed over me. A couple of seconds later he nodded into the phone and smiled. That smile helped to relieve my anxiety.
“Yes, ma’am, I will send them right up.”
I slowly let out a sigh of relief and I didn’t realize I had been holding it in. We had just passed the biggest obstacle. The doorman’s smile was more cautious than friendly as he gave us her apartment number.
As we rode the elevator up to the 18th floor, Carrie looked over at me with desperation written all over her face.
“What are we going to say to her Harper?”
I thought for a second and slowly shook my head.
“I have no clue but I am sure something will come to me once we knock on the door.”
The elevator dinged when we reached 18 and I jumped as the sound startled me. We made our way down the hall, each step causing my heart to beat faster. When we finally reached apartment 18H I looked at Carrie and took a deep breath before letting it out slowly.
“Here we go.”
Chapter Seven
“Harper Madison and Carrie Hanson! What a nice surprise! Come on in! What on earth are you two doing here?”
Janice’s friendly reception of us instantly put me at ease. Looking at her you would still never know that she had been excessively overweight in high school. She looked like a model. We settled onto her sofa and made small talk for a few minutes, and I actually felt bad that we were there to question her about Sarah’s death. As we sat and talked with her, she was the same sweet, kind person she had been in high school. I wanted to turn around and leave and forget that we were there to basically interrogate her about a murder. Then I remembered that we had discovered that the life she had told us about was a lie, and Janice was hiding something.
“Can I get you ladies anything to drink?”
“I would love a glass of water,” I said.
“Me too,” Carrie chimed in.
“Two glasses of water coming right up!”
When she came back with our water I decided it was best to just dive right in with questions because we didn’t have much time. I glanced around at her apartment, which was beautifully decorated, and did not see one sign of a husband or child in the place. There were no photos, no errant toys lying in a corner and not one masculine accessory in the home, so since we were inside her apartment, I figured it was logical to wonder about the lack of family evidence.
“Janice, didn’t you say you were married and had a young child? I don’t see any signs of them, are they here? We would love to meet them.”
She hesitated and then stumbled over her words.
“Oh, my husband took our son, I mean daughter, to see his parents in Connecticut for the weekend. They will be back tomorrow night.”
I looked over at Carrie and she had a sympathetic look on her face. I felt that same sympathy for Janice. For whatever reason Janice was sticking to her lie and I had to call her on it because maybe the lie had something to do with Sarah’s death.
“Janice.” My voice was gentle as I held her gaze.
“Yes?” She tried to look nonchalant but I could see that she was nervous.
“Carrie and I know that you are not married and don’t have any kids. We followed you to the Martini Spot yesterday and we know that you work there. We are not judging you for working at that place, but what we don’t understand is why you are lying about having a family and being a lawyer.”
The blood drained from her face as she nervously looked back and forth between the two of us.
“You guys followed me? Why would you do that? What is going here? Why are you in New York?”
That was not the response I expected and I don’t know that I was prepared to bring up Sarah yet. I looked over at Carrie who looked like the cat who swallowed the canary. She wasn’t going to offer me an out so I had to think of something fast.
“It was a last-minute girls’ trip because I have never been here. We just saw Wicked, a show I have wanted to see for the longest time in New York so that was pretty amazing. Then we remembered that you live here so we thought we would stop by to say hello.”
Janice slowly shook her head. “That is not the truth so please stop lying to me, Harper. I have never been anything but nice to both of you so I don’t understand why you guys are doing this to me.”
She sounded genuinely hurt and I felt like a heel. I opened my mouth to add more to my story but I stopped when I saw that she was tearing up and decided to tell her the truth. I looked over at Carrie and she gave me a subtle nod.
“Okay, you’re kind of right. While it is true that this is a girl’s trip, we did come here to see you.”
“Why?” Janice was thoroughly confused.
&nbs
p; Before I could answer her, Carrie jumped in.
“We overheard you and Sarah arguing in the bathroom the night that she died, and we know that she was threatening to reveal a secret that you have. You did not sound happy about that at all and we heard you threaten her, Janice. Then she turns up dead a little while later? What are we supposed to think? We have to get to the bottom of what happened to Sarah.”
Janice looked at us with utter and complete disbelief, and then she got angry.
“You guys think that I killed Sarah? Are you serious? What, did you both become detectives in the last week? I can’t believe you would think I was capable of something so horrific. I would be even more angry about this if I wasn’t so hurt.”
I jumped in because I could see how upset she was and Carrie’s delivery could have been sugar coated a little bit better.
“Janice, of course we don’t want to believe that you would be capable of killing someone, but we had never heard you sound the way you did that day in the restroom and then we get to New York and your life is not what you said it was. Things are just not adding up. Can you tell us why you lied about being married?” I tried to sound as gentle and caring as possible, still keeping in mind that she could be a murderer.
“I don’t really owe either of you any explanations but I see that I need to clear my name with you two so you don’t go spreading rumors about me or worse, send the police after me. For the record, I did not kill Sarah and I had nothing to do with her death. Yes, I was upset with her that day because she threatened to share something I had told her that she had agreed to keep private.”
“I am assuming you’re talking about not really being married.”
She hung her head for a few seconds and then slowly looked up at us.
“Yes, but I was not trying to be deceptive about that, I was just embarrassed that I was alone. After all of the teasing I endured in high school, I wanted to make sure I went to the reunion a completely different person and a husband and child seemed to round out my new perfect life. I really wanted people to be impressed and I guess that stems from the low self-esteem I had for so many years. Once I started to lose weight, I felt good about myself but I really wanted people at the reunion to like me. So, I made up that story.”
“Sarah knew this?” Carrie asked.
“Yes, she threatened to tell everyone in Prairie Cove and I had a flashback to high school and the incessant teasing and couldn’t deal with that happening to me again. That is why I was so upset that day in the bathroom…that and the fact that she betrayed my trust. Sarah became extremely jealous of me when I lost weight and started getting so much attention from attractive men, and I think she wanted to ruin my life. When she found out about the man I am currently dating I thought she would burst a blood vessel because she was so filled with jealousy.”
“So, you and Sarah were not really friends?”
“I thought we were, but lately she was just obsessed with being me and it got weird so I didn’t want to be around her. She actually flirted openly with my fiancé and that was the last straw.”
“Fiancé?”
“Yes, we are getting married next month.”
“Janice, that is wonderful! Congratulations!”
She managed a small smile. “Thank you.”
“The woman we talked to where you work told us a man was smitten with you. Speaking of where you work, why did you lie about being an attorney?”
Her eyes flew open, completely innocent. “I didn’t! I am an attorney but I am a state’s attorney so I make very little money, and I have student loans to pay off so I work in the front office for extra money.”
“Not to sound judgmental, but why are you working at a place like that?” Carrie’s question did sound judgmental.
“I make in one weekend almost as much as I make in one week at my day job. Even though it is a gentleman’s club, it is more of an upscale restaurant with a surprise. I work the front area and I don’t see the dancers at all. I go to work and I leave. As soon as my loans are paid off, I will be quitting. My fiancé offered to pay them off for me but I want to pay off my debt, I don’t think it is fair to have him pay that for me.”
Carrie and I looked at each other and I just knew in my gut that Janice didn’t kill Sarah. She was the same sweet person she was in high school and I admired her determination to settle her debt herself. I looked over at her and saw a glimmer of the high school Janice, and I felt horrible that we had mentally sent her back to such a painful time in her life. It was time for us to apologize.
“Janice, I feel horrible that we have upset you and I want you to know that the only reason we questioned you is because we heard that argument with Sarah. I know that you didn’t kill her and I hope you can forgive us for doubting you.”
“Yes, we are sorry. Can you forgive us?” Carrie asked.
A smile slowly spread across her face. “Yes, of course I can. Boy Harper, your pastries are delicious but you may have missed your calling. Your sleuth skills are impressive!”
“Amateur sleuth,” Carrie said as she smiled and rolled her eyes, “we can’t have her getting a big head.”
We all giggled and then Janice got serious.
“So, any other leads on what happened to Sarah? Any ideas who could have done this?”
I thought about the menacing man at the bakery who seemed to be threatening Sarah and I wondered if Janice knew him.
“Now that you ask, there was a man who came into the bakery one day and he did not look pleased with Sarah. He was tall, about 6’3”, had dark hair and just didn’t look like he lived in Prairie Cove. I also thought I saw him at the Hanson’s party but I can’t be sure because it was a quick blip and then he was gone. Do you have any idea who that could be?”
Her face instantly fell as she slowly nodded her head. “That sounds like Joe Dibello and he is bad news.”
“How did Sarah know him?” I asked.
“She got involved with underground poker and every time she came to visit me, she spent most of her time at a game. I rarely saw her. In the past couple of months, she was really worried about money because she had lost so much during poker. She said something about owing money and making a payment plan, but didn’t go into specifics. My guess is that Joe guy is kind of an enforcer. I think he probably was looking for the payback. Underground poker is no joke.”
Underground poker? Enforcer? Payback? What the heck had Sarah gotten herself into?
“Do you think he would have killed Sarah?” Carrie asked.
I was wondering the same thing myself.
“Honestly, I wouldn’t put anything past people in that underground world. It is ruthless and I have no idea how much money she owed.”
“Do you know how we can get in touch with him?”
Janice started furiously shaking her head no. “You can’t go look for him on your own Harper. He is not a good guy. If you think he should be questioned you need to get the police involved.”
“Janice is right, Harper, you should let Detective Sloane handle this.”
They were both right, it was too dangerous for me to go looking for that guy by myself, but I wasn’t going to just hand Detective Sloane the suspect on a silver platter. I wanted to be involved in tracking the guy down and questioning him so I was going to have to figure out how to make Detective Sloane allow me to tag along.
Janice glanced at her watch and nearly jumped off of the sofa.
“Ladies, I didn’t realize how late it was. I hate to kick you out but I have to get ready for work.”
I glanced at my watch and saw that it was nearly 7:00. I had no idea that time had flown so fast, and the last thing I wanted to do was make Janice late for work. Carrie and stood up and made our way toward the door.
“I am so sorry, Janice! Time really got away from us.”
“I wish you guys could stay longer because it has been really nice having you here. You will have to come back soon and we can plan a fun girl’s weekend.”
“Thank you for being so understanding about everything and I hope we didn’t upset you by coming here.”
“No, no, I understand why you did. I want to know who killed Sarah too, so as soon as you find out any news please let me know.”
“We definitely will,” I smiled at her.
She smiled back and then a serious look washed over her face as she looked back and forth between me and Carrie.
“Be very careful asking around about Joe. He knows a lot of dangerous people and they will not hesitate to hurt you if they think you are trying to do anything to interfere with their money.”
